Posts Tagged ‘spring thaw’
Just Wet
Make it stop!
There is nothing particularly out of character about the April wetness we are currently enduring but that doesn’t make it any less burdensome. The periods of slushy snowflakes that don’t last very long on the ground are not as much of a problem as the spells of heavy rain we’ve been experiencing.
The frost has not gone out of the ground yet and that means the top few inches that have already softened are holding all the precipitation that falls. The slop in the paddocks is really miserable to walk in. The horses are dealing with it heroically, finally showing a willingness to spend the majority of their time under the protection of the overhang.
Unfortunately, that concentrates their urine and manure on the only ground that wasn’t already sloppy mud. It’s now stinky, messy limestone screenings.
Hopefully, we’ve only got one day left of this soaking session before a weekend of sun gives us a brief respite. I fear that won’t be enough time for the mud to dry very much before the next wave of rain moves over us again. Still, any amount of time without more rain is greatly appreciated.
April with animals becomes quite an exercise of endurance. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could hunker down indoors and wait out the days of rain snuggled in front of the fireplace. We are outside multiple times a day no matter what the weather, trudging through the muck that any sane person would unquestionably avoid.
It’s just thoroughly wet outside. I sure wish it would stop raining.
.
.
Hue Fatigue
I’m growing weary of the many hues of brown that define the expanse of our outdoor views. Dark varieties of mud. Tans of the dry grasses. Graying shades of tree trunks and bare branches. Brown fence posts. Top them all off with the dullness of cloudy skies and the lifeless hues all combine to suck energy out of every breath.
This time of year we are happy to have the snow melt away but it comes with a visual cost until enough warmth and sunshine collaborate to launch the explosion of greenery we are longing to see again.
Alas, that is not fully living in the moment, is it? It’s April 1st today! No foolin’.
There are many treasures to be claimed in the current conditions, even if I find myself worn out by the same brown shades every single day that the sun is obscured from view.
The ever-changing status of the land as it weaves its way back and forth from winter’s hard freeze to fully thawed at every depth is like a carnival ride. In this indeterminate season the ground begins to thaw and then, nope, it’s frozen again and the air is warm, wait, no, it’s cold again, nope, bitter wind today, okay, tolerable this afternoon. It’s not too dry and not overly wet except that it is too dry in some places and a sloppy, muddy mess in others.
It’s enough to lead me toward a certain recliner where I can lounge and soak up the indoor shades of brown that like to snuggle.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yesterday was our annual geothermal furnace checkup and in its 9th year of service for us the numbers all read in the good or in one case, better than good. It will eventually switch from heating our home to cooling it during high heat periods of summer. Best decision we ever made, biting the bullet of high initial expense and replacing the 20-year-old original furnace in this house with the geothermal shortly after we arrived.
It’s funny that our seasons change every year, but right now I’m having difficulty remembering what that high heat of summer is like.
I do know that our world is a much deeper green when that happens. How come we never grow weary of those summertime hues?
.
.
Already Behind
I recently bought a compost thermometer with an 18 inch probe to check the temperature in the center of my composting manure piles. My first test had me worried that the device was broken when the needle moved the wrong direction. I moved the probe to another spot and started to get a positive reading, so it wasn’t a total bust. I just needed to find a true hotspot in the pile.
A couple of days later I discovered why the needle moved the wrong direction. Not only was that spot not warm from actively composting, it was still snow-packed! With daytime temperatures in the 60s (F) lately, I allowed myself to be fooled about how much melting had occurred.
Only the main core of the pile really stays warm in the winter, and even that can go cold if the composting process stalls. Plenty of the accumulating pile on the fringes is mixed with snow when it gets picked up, or the entire pile gets periodically covered with new fallen snow.
When the spring thaw begins, the visible snow is the first to go. It takes a lot longer to melt piles of snow and ice. I somehow was lulled into the assumption that our low amount of snow cover would mean a complete thaw would happen almost immediately.
The transition from winter to spring is a frustrating one for me. In some ways it seems to take a long time, but in other ways it happens faster than I can react. I noticed yesterday that the landscape pond beside our deck was more water than ice. I need to buy a new in-line filter for the water we pump up to a little waterfall.
While walking Delilah, we came across evidence that moles have already begun their activity of tunneling in the lawn. I meant to buy some stinky deterrent to drive them off into the woods and out of our yard. Haven’t done that yet.
Even though we are drying out nicely, there is still a lot of soil moisture, which will be good when it comes to getting our hayfield to grow, but it means we can’t drive around on any of our machines without making deep impressions in the soft earth.
I would like to clean out the winter accumulation of manure in the paddocks, sooner than later, but that is a huge project and it is inviting a muddy battle to drive around pulling a heavy trailer this soon after the melt.
On top of these concerns is the always possible threat that we could yet receive a significant wallop of a winter storm. The example I repeatedly refer to now is the 18 inches we received on May 2nd in 2013. So even though I feel like I am already behind in being prepared for spring, the possibility for additional doses of winter weather still has a high potential to occur for another 6-weeks or so.
It’s crazy-making. Luckily, we have a trip to visit the Morales’ in Guatemala very soon. That ought to take my mind off the concern of lingering snow events for a while.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 