I am fed up with this, I am looking forward to..

[Michel Boulay]

Certainly some of the signs of spring here are like yours, let it be sugarhouses firing up, deer in medows, great blue herons appearing,but all a little later. One sign of spring is when ice breaks up on the Bouctouche river and the water is high and people rush up river to have a canoe run, which last maybe three weekends depending how fast snow melts. In our garden when the soil starts to warm up and aspergus shoots appear thats a sure sign to hummm… and good.

[Gabe Ayers]

The echo of footsteps in an empty barn loft are a human centered sign of spring around our place….

Barn cleaning and fertilizing our fields with compost and manure are spring flings for sure…. flinging being the operative word here….

Young horses, recently babies, now big enough to seem like with a little fitting they can wear a harness….

Migrating birds in small flocks stopping for a rest in the canopy of the high plateau woods.

Deep mud, stuck trucks, working around elements that remind of our limitations regularly…

Pregnancy in full bloom, when their bellies are wider than their butts, something is about to happen – even the soil itself suggests a new birthing.

Seed shopping in earnest, the time of looking at the pictures and pondering is over…

Pulling the chain harrow over equine toilet areas and singing the song I’m a turd buster in my head….

Have I mentioned mud, how does this stuff get in the house…oh well, the potted house plants need some fertilizer too…

Happy Spring everyone….

[near horse]

How about these two:

1) the sound of water. Running over the spillway of the pond or just creeks thawing and high w/ the beginning snowmelt. Or the splash of geese “landing” on still water.

2) Did I mention CANADA GEESE! – do any of you see geese coming through on their migration route? That is a true sign of spring for us and can be quite a raucous event when a flock circles and then lands on the pond. Sometimes they’ll land on still frozen ponds and stand there w/ a puzzled look (my interpretation). There’s a lot of honking when the fights erupt over who’s going to nest on this pond. Just an aside – in Boise ID, Boise State University has blue field turf in their outdoor sports stadium (Smurf Turf) and geese have been known to land on it (looks like a nice pond from the air).

[Robert MoonShadow]

Here’s one I did today;
The sight of a 1-eyed man wearing ankle weights to help shed some extra “winter poundage” as he weaves a pea net/trellis out of haybale twine. Same man, planting first row of each pea varity by hand (instead of his seed planter) just because he’s missed the feel of dirt running between his fingers. Same man mumbling & cussing because he knelt on a goathead – twice! {Those are nature’s equivalant to the barbs on a barb-wire fence}. Same man laughing as the robin lands in the row, looking for a juicy worm, as the kitten that’s napping in the sun 10′ away just glances at it & goes back to sleep.

[OldKat]

The first sign of spring for us is the geese leaving the coastal plain heading for points north. There are no longer the flocks of 100,000 plus that we use to see when there were tens of thousands of acres of rice farmed south of us, but we still see enough flying over to be noticeable. That was a month ago. Most of the oak trees are now fully leaved out; the crazy Live Oak trees are into their full countercyclical mode and are now loosing theirs. Azaleas are almost done blooming; the huisache brush is covered in yellow flowers. Supposedly the French cultivate this stuff for the flowers, which they use in perfume. They can come get all of it that want here; we will give it to them! The last “sure sign” of spring is when the native pecans leaf out. They haven’t spoken yet, so it isn’t a done deal …but it is coming sure enough.

Today I put out the last of the hay I am likely to put out, of course I thought this two weeks ago as well. I had to buy 15 more rolls of hay 2 weeks ago today just to get through the unexpectedly cool and dry late “winter” spell we were having. Checking the cows for new calves late Friday a week ago I was dismayed to see that the grass had started to green up, but was no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall. Then last Saturday winter took one last shot at us, never getting out of the low 40’s, and a light but steady rain fell all day. Wind chill in the low 30’s. The 2 rolls of hay I put out Saturday were quickly consumed, long gone by my Wednesday morning check. Same with the hay put out that day, just vanished. Then it warmed into the upper 70’s for several days, only dropping into the mid 50’s at night and the grass exploded.

Today’s check revealed that there is only 3 head left to calve, but more importantly the grass that was only gleaning green a week & a half ago was a good 3 to 4 inches tall. The cows looked at me like I was crazy when I put out the round bales. After eating that stuff for a full 90 days they wanted no part of it. Came upon 9 or 10 does browsing in the brush while I was checking for one last calf and they didn’t even budge, they just watched me go by on the tractor. They know that winter is done and with it deer season has ended. The ingredients for spring are all here, we just need to add water and watch the results. There are signs the drought is trying to break, and hopefully it will soon. Spring is a good time.

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 7242 wrote:

Here’s one I did today;
The sight of a 1-eyed man wearing ankle weights to help shed some extra “winter poundage” as he weaves a pea net/trellis out of haybale twine. .

ooooooooo I’m always looking for ways to reuse that baling twine, great idea!

@OldKat 7339 wrote:

Azaleas are almost done blooming;

I can’t wait…those are by far my favorites. I have the late blooming oranges and yellows…it will be awhile yet.

[Robert MoonShadow]

@jenjudkins 7349 wrote:

ooooooooo I’m always looking for ways to reuse that baling twine, great idea!
Green beans, etc. –> Helpful hint: before taking them down, pull the vines off (as much as possible); that way you can compost them or feed them to your goats. (Lot’s of nitrogen/protein). Easier that way to seperate from the garbage-bound twine.

I can’t wait…those are by far my favorites. I have the late blooming oranges and yellows…it will be awhile yet.

When I get my own property (finally), I’ll be asking for some starts off of these, young lady. 😀

[dominiquer60]

As I have mentioned before, South Florida has no real spring other than the oaks loosing their leaves. I worked the morning of March 29th and was on the road north the next morning by 5 AM, couldn’t get out of the state fast enough. The weather in Florida has been rather dry, normally on my journey north I see waves of crimson clover on the side of 95 but none this year, just brown grass.

In northern FL I begin to notice that there are deciduous trees and that they have bright new shiny leaves. Georgia brought azaleas passed there prime and gobs of Wisteria hanging from trees. Tractors where busy planting and green grass sprinkled with black and red beef cows showed the progress of the season. In South Carolina there was more freshly stirred ground and the remains of daffodil beds, green grass was prolific and trees were dressed in infant leaves. It started to get interesting as the sun was setting and North Carolina sped by. Daffodils passed prime but still blooming, dairy farms razing rotational pastures, mobile chicken houses with a few hundred hens busy in the last hunt for worms of the day. I knew I was getting closer to where I wanted to be.

I entered the great state of Virginia as the sun kissed the horizon and immediately started to gain altitude up the side of the great Appalachian Mountain chain. Once on top I could see a patchwork of highland pastures and hayfields, all emerald green. As night set I passed a multitude of small farms and towns until I found the correct pig path and a hospitable little farm. The weather was all spring, warm sun, cool wind, fog, rain, frost it was almost as good as being home and the people were nearly as friendly as my Yankee folks back home. I enjoyed a great dose of southern hospitality and shared some great meals with these self proclaimed Redneck Tree Huggers. Eventually the call of the yankee homeland was too strong and I left this oasis of back road sanity/insanity, still not sure ;).

I have always wanted to take the I-81 route home and I am glad that I took the opportunity to do so this year. Although farms are bigger than they used to be and pavement has sprawled, you still get a good sense that farming will always be an important part of Appalachia. Buds on trees slowly disappeared with the red earth of Virgina and were replaced in time with historic looking dairy barns with stone foundations and huge beds of daffodils in full blume. Grass became increasingly shorter as if going back in time and eventually poked through the dead dry tufts of brown from last year as we approached NY. The Susquehanna was swollen brown with runoff and the landscape looks thawed but dormant. Blue ice still clings to the NW faces of rock canyons along I-88. Farmers at the head waters of the great Susquehanna carefully spread manure in fields furthest from the tributaries. The sun sinks low as I pull into my fathers house, always my first stop home. He still has the markers for the snow plow out, just in case and there is still evidence of the snow drift in the shadows of his two barns. But the cats are out and enjoying the last rays of the sun and the crocuses are in their prime, it is the beginning of spring in the hilltowns.

I feels good to be home and see the progress in the greenhouse and get the cracks in my hands filled with black potting soil, shovel manure, feed the hens, pinch flowers back and all the other numerous activities that mean spring to me in the northeast. It feels wonderful to be home:)

Erika

[dominiquer60]

The red winged black birds arrived on March 1st, a little early, but maybe a sign. I am looking forward next to when the barn swallows return for nesting season.

[sickle hocks]

She came in like a lion here…wet driving snow and a hard wind. The cattail marsh is drifted in and waiting, blackbirds will be another seven weeks. A northern goshawk cut across the meadow though, right on time….
it’s close now, we’ll wait it out…

[rookie]

Oh! For sure that is gonna take me awhile!!! Thanks for the good laugh!!

[LongViewFarm]

Grilling… and good beer, games, and company while waiting for the coals to get just right…

[J-L]

While I look forward to spring, it is NOT my favorite season.

By now my horses and mules are worked down pretty hard, but ready for meadow dragging in May. Cows are in fair shape, but hay stacks are dwindling fast enough to make you worry. We try to have half our winters hay left on March 1 so you won’t run out.

Cows are getting heavy and calving barn full of heifers at night. Need cleaned. The night calver is a grumpy old bastard who deparately needs a full nights sleep.

I can’t remember how many times all those birds arrive in April, who are supposed to be a sign of spring, with a couple feet of snow and sub zero weather. Makes it seem worse because you THINK spring ought to be starting.

You check heifers two or three times a night, then saddle up before daylight to go through old cows for a check. Feed, check heifers again, maybe clean barn, eat, snooze (hopefully), check heifers, saddle up and gather heifers to the barn, ride around old cows at dark. Repeat.

Then we throw in the field work come May 1st. Getting meadows dragged. Maybe put in some oats. Ditching. Fencing where snow drifts wipe out fence every year (if said drifts are melted by then). Start getting water out, spreading manure and fertilizer. Still calving some cows along with this stuff, and keeping the young ones alive throught the wet snow storms and cold snaps, and accompanying sickness.

Branding, sorting, getting ready to go out on grass. Herding cattle to various pastures. Artificial insemination starts on one herd. Then a break of sorts. Hopefully it involves a pack trip early July, and beer.

I give fall a higher rating. Means hay is up, cattle self sufficient, pack trips into high country for elk hunting, no bugs.

All this negativity comes fro lack of sleep.

[dominiquer60]

There are tough parts about every seasonal change, but when inhaling changes from nose hairs freezing together to the smell of sap boiling, to the smell of thawed out soil, it makes the hardships a little more tolerable 🙂

[J-L]

Two below zero this morning, wouldn’t you know it…flock of geese flew over the feed ground!

[Author]

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