What a gorgeous, gorgeous morning! I can’t believe how much of the snow is gone! Better yet, the ground seems to actually be absorbing a fair amount of it, and the “moat” around the garage has actually receded a bit. We didn’t even reach freezing temperatures overnight. There’s a section of snow built up by our neighbour plowing that got washed away like a river by the accumulating water, draining into the outer yard towards the barn, and there is hardly any water in the exposed grass. Water has accumulated along the fence line from the garage to the gate, where it is lower and drains into the ditch, and the snow around the gate cam’s post – even the gate itself, on that side – is completely clear of snow. The other side of the driveway at the gate is shaded by a huge spruce tree, but even there, I could probably access and close the other half of the gate.

This beautiful boy followed me around the entire time I was doing my rounds. He even let me get a burr out of his fur under his neck. He still won’t let me get the ones on his tail, though, and there are quite a few of them. I’ve never seen burrs being this much of a problem before. Even Rolando Moon showed up with burrs stuck on her tail and back. She wouldn’t let me pull them out, either. At least with her short fur, she has a better chance of getting them out herself.

Snow around the house is disappearing quickly. Yesterday evening, I went around picking up the long plastic strips from the shingle adhesive that got missed in the snow. This morning, however, this was uncovered.

This was not there last fall, before the snow fell. It’s not far from where groundhogs had dug a tunnel behind the mock orange tree, next to the steps to the dining room door that I kept trying to fill in. The groundhogs weren’t as much of a problem last year as the year before – I think too many of their dens got flooded out – and I eventually stopped trying to fill in the hole when it looked like it was no longer being dug out and used. It’s still there, but partially filled, hidden behind the mock orange. There are no fresh signs of digging there. This hole, meanwhile, has the ground around it undisturbed. Which suggests to me that it was dug out from the inside, perhaps as a “back door” to the den below.

Talking to my brother and his wife yesterday, they mentioned that their sump pump is going off more often. When I was doing my evening rounds yesterday (that is something I can start doing more thoroughly now!), I made sure to check, and the hose from ours is now clear of snow, but so far, it has not gone off. The reservoir has been slowly accumulating water, but as of last night, the concrete is still dry. I even checked the floor drain on the other side. If there was water being diverted by the weeping tile under the new basement to the septic tank, I would see it there. There is no new water there (though the thinnest of roots are growing under drain cover!). So for all the snowmelt and accumulated water I am seeing outside, we are still actually quite dry!

Something else I checked while doing my rounds.

Last night, I noticed the three low raised beds near the compost pile were mostly uncovered. This morning, two of them were completely clear of snow, while the third still has only a small amount. I checked on of the open ones, and found I could dig my fingers into the soil. I’m even seeing some weeds starting to grow, and could pull up the ones with shallower roots.

This means that I could actually plant in these beds.

I have a few things that can be direct sown “as soon as the ground can be worked”. It doesn’t matter if the ground it still frozen and inch or so below, and they can even handle a bit of snowfall. This includes things like peas, carrots and beets. From what I’ve read, I could even transplant our onions and shallots out in these conditions!

Which I’m not going to do. At least not quite yet. I want to break up the soil a bit more and pull up and weeds and roots in the low raised beds. Later today, I will check the new beds I finished last fall in the old kitchen garden and see what condition they are in. There are two more beds in there I want to raise a bit higher, too, but I’ll need the ground to thaw a bit more, first.

Then I have to consider what I want to actually sow first, and where. The high raised bed in the main garden area is almost clear, but the snow around it and on the low raised beds is still too deep.

I can’t believe I’m actually thinking about sowing and transplanting outside, and we’re just reaching the middle of April!

The Re-Farmer