Planting Plans

Even though the weather has been 10 degrees below normal and we still have a bunch of snow on the ground I am planning out some veggies to grow. We only did a few things last year, mainly tomatoes, squash and some herbs that were successful. I had a few others that weren't so successful- broccoli and mini watermelons that I got into the ground too late. This year I am ready to try again. I am hoping to add another raised bed and more veggies.

This past weekend Kenzie and I started some seeds inside. With such a short growing season here in the northeast, it seems beneficial to give plants a head start inside. We'll wait to put the carrots and corn directly into the ground after the final frost as these don't seem to transplant well.

Mackenzie, my little scientist also has her own experiment going on involving plants. For Christmas she recieved a Root Vue Farm which is basically a little container with a plexiglass side that allows you to observe how root vegetables grow underground. She has some radishes, onions and carrots planted and they have just started to sprout! I'll update her experiment later with some pictures as the actually veggies start to grow.

Spring??

Yesterday was the first full day of spring and everything around here was more white than green. We got several inches of snow and even though I am more than ready for the warmer weather it was pretty.

Now Thing 1 and Thing 2 are normally pretty good about going to bed on school nights. But last night Thing 1 snuck into Thing 2's room after they had been put to bed and lots of talking and loud giggling ensued- if they had been quiet I wouldn't have been the wiser. Anyway, even after being seperated they were still up reading later than I would have liked for a school night.

Perhaps they knew that the snow would lead to a two hour delay and that they would get to sleep in the next morning!

Muddy McMudpuddle

We are well into mud season which means the snow is melting and the ground is thawing, but it also means that there is mud everywhere. There is no place that my oldest daughter would rather be than right in the middle of it.

And in case you were wondering, this giant mudpit is the driveway.

Yesterday the temps hit 60 and she was outside for hours in shorts, t-shirt and a pair of rubber boots with no socks, splashing in the puddles. She splashed around so much that she would have to periodically stop and dump the water out of her boots!

Then she got mad because I made her take a shower to get cleaned up.

Mud

Poem To Mud

- Poem to ooze- Patted in pies, or coating the shoes. Poem to slooze- Poem to crud- Fed by a leak, or spread by a flood. Wherever, whenever, whyever it goes, Stirred by your finger or strained by your toes, There's nothing sloppier, slipperier, floppier, There's nothing slickier, stickier, thickier, There's nothing quickier to make grown-ups sickier, Trulier coolier, Than wonderful mud.

-Zilpha Keatley Snyder

So we are full on in mud season which is obvious from the photos. As you can also see from the photos we were actually able to go outside without snowpants, coats, hats and mittens! Yes Spring has finally arrived and after three weeks of one person or another being sick it has been a very welcome reprieve! We still have piles of snow but there are patches of grass to be seen here and there and for the next several days we are supposed to get temperatures in the 50s and 60s so we should have some significant melting. But with the melting comes the mud and I have given up trying to keep my floors clean until it dries up!