Louise's Utopia: Spring Is Afoot...Or Is It?

We are currently in that somewhat odd time of year where we are left guessing, is it winter or is it spring? Will it snow or are we done for the year? Can I switch the snowblower on the tractor for the rototiller? Some people rely on the groundhog and his prediction. Frankly, I have been watching for the ground squirrels myself. While they continue to push obnoxious mounds of dirt in my garden and yard, they have not stuck their little heads up yet. Due to this, the cats are still bored, because they cannot sit at the openings of the ground squirrel burrows and wait. Speaking of cats though, my coyote friend returned the other day. He or she did not appear afraid of us at all, which is a bit concerning. I think it might be time for a big outdoor dog. The coyote is cute enough, but I do not want it in my yard, or the cats will become someone's dinner. Other signs of spring are the migratory birds returning. Large flocks are starting to fly over the house almost daily now, so they know things are changing. When you live on the Coteau though, the hardest thing to gauge here is the weather. One day it might be nice and warm, with no wind and sunny, and the next freezing cold and near blizzard conditions. This can make things a bit annoying from day to day when all I want is to get outdoors and enjoy a little warmth and sunshine. I learned a long time ago not to complain about summer heat, but rather to cherish every day of warmth that we get.

Even though it is still somewhat cold, and I cannot be sure if winter will return or not, it is time to start preparing for our garden. This year I am going to start my plants indoors. I do not yet have a greenhouse yet (future plans), so I am going to start them inside. I have a six-rack metal shelf with wheels, upon which I will place my flats of small square pots. Each flat, will hold 32 plastic planter pots. I also purchased heating mats to keep some of the pots extra warm. In particular the petunias like to have the temperature of the dirt at 75 degrees while they are germinating. I am hoping everything turns out because I am finding this to be a very expensive endeavor. The seeds alone for the petunias were quite a lot, so I can start to see why nurseries have to charge so much for an individual plant. The profit margin is not that great. I am hoping though to have my own plants this year to sell, so keep an eye out for when they are ready. We are also going to start our garden plants indoors this year, to give us a bit of extra growing season. Last winter went so late, we had beautiful pumpkin plans, but they never produced any pumpkins. Hopefully this year we will have some large beautiful pumpkins in time for Halloween.

So, while it may still feel cold from day to day, spring is indeed afoot. Most importantly Easter is just around the corner. As we prepare our farm for the spring, we can also use this time to prepare our souls for the coming springtime spiritually. Thank God for each day we have, whether it is cold or warm, sunny or cloudy. Take time to pray and quiet yourself. Soon enough a new spring will be upon us, and we will miss the quiet late winter days when, like the seed in the ground, we can quietly let God's warmth transform us.