Finally Winter seems to have lost it’s hold on Minnesota. I was out in my long sleeves, jeans and boots today and couldn’t feel a chill. What a beautiful feeling. With Spring comes a rush of new ventures.

Mat tapped all the trees this past week in preparation for sap to flow. At this moment, he is breaking a trail to the sugar bush with a recently purchased snowmobile. Within a year, it will likely save us money on fuel since we were using a Skid steer to break the trail last year. Our oldest boy is helping with that. He can’t get enough of this weather. After lunch a large puddle had formed in the dirt driveway. He instantly became a civil engineer trouble-shooting the massive flow of water that is everywhere. I love homeschooling for this very reason. What an opportunity for hands-on, fun-filled learning. Our middle boy said, “Mama, I want it to be Summer.” With a heavy heart, he now knows that Spring and it’s sloppiness comes after Winter. Adding to the other boy’s enjoyment today, our youngest smiled the biggest smile as he slid down an icy ‘mountain’ of snow just outside our door. As they played, I enjoyed a little work in preparation for growing season as I dug out a bin of soil we had used for carrots last year. I will use it to make large soil blocks to transplant our little seedlings. I also put our seed potatoes in the fridge since our storage space is not cool any longer. We purchased quality seed potatoes last year. This year we have twice the amount just by storing them well, so we should be able to sell some as well as have a large quantity for ourselves and to host you (potato salad, mashed potatoes, fries, etc.).

Soon Mathew will be trudging between trees gathering buckets of sap. As he waits for the bags on the trees to fill, he will be making an egg-mobile in preparation for our egg laying chickens to arrive. Are you going to come help us and enjoy the Spring while it lasts? Tell me how you’d like your potatoes.