Undeniable Signs of Spring!!!

My office has been looking like spring for several weeks now, but outside winter has been hanging on way too long. These seedlings want to get out in the garden - and so do I!
Finally this morning there were a bunch of indications spring is truly coming at last.

First of all, there was a dry path across the patio from the steps to the driveway today.  The patio edges still have a  2-foot deep  mound of snow, but the 4-inch deep puddle we have been wading through the past few days (or skating across when it freezes at night) is dried up.  On the down side, I did sort of appreciate that the puddle served to wash off the dogs' muddy feet before they entered the house. It is definitely starting to be mud season (a less favorite aspect of spring on the farm.)

The driveway has my favorite kind of puddles, with a crispy  layer of ice on top that make a satisfying crackle when you step on them, I may be a old lady now  but I still get a childlike thrill from breaking the ice on all the puddles.

The snow has thawed and frozen and condensed so much that it is now hard, crunchy, glazed and strong enough to support your weight without sinking in. You can see  by the footprints how just yesterday I sank in a few inches. So much nicer to haul bales of hay across the pasture when you are walking on top of the snow, not wading through it!

Yesterday we got the first dribble of sap from the silver maple trees. This afternoon we should get a strong trickle!

The snow in the pasture and garden has a lacey, delicate flaky texture.  Very dramatic.

Along the south side of the little garden shed, the snow is totally gone and the ground is cracking where tulip bulbs will be bursting through any minute. A rabbit  has eaten part of a tulip bulb already. Those darn rabbits!

Inside the greenhouse is ready for planting this weekend.  We uncovered the beds and watered last  Sunday. Our winter growing was a total failure  this year.  We got a late start planting last fall because we couldn't bear to pull the late-bearing tomatoes and peppers out. Then, it was a very cold winter and  everything was devoured by rabbits.  Absolutely everything, right down to the ground.

This is our first year with rabbit problems. I have a few theories why. Two years ago we had problems with a family of great-horned owls eating our poultry - but they were probably also keeping the rabbit population in check. When we did a better job cooping all of our birds at night the owls moved on. The next winter was so balmy, the rabbit population must have exploded with no predators.  Plus, last fall Rog built a temporary "deck" out of concrete blocks and lumber on the south side of our barn, inadvertently creating the perfect rabbit habitat just a few feet from our cozy, abundant high tunnel. Not only are we facing rabbit  pests this spring,  we have had a herd of 7 whitetail deer passing through every evening the past couple weeks and I dread to think of the damage they could do to our gardens.

Here is a photo I didn't think I would be able to take this spring-  hundreds of  fish in our  silo pond!  Sometime during the winter, our our pond heaters (which keep an opening in the ice for air exchange) got unplugged and the pond was totally covered with thick ice. I was afraid it was frozen all the way to the bottom.  Rog has been heating inside the  fish gazebo with  a propane heater the past week and the ice is finally melted - and amazingly, the fish  have survived!

Two of the three goldfish we a started with last  summer - they were only a couple inches long then, and are at least 7 inches now.

I was delighted to see one of the leopard frogs that took up residence last summer on the bottom of the pond this morning.  Maybe we will have frog eggs!

I am woefully behind in updates about our aquaponics system (I never even posted photos of  enclosing the  pond gazebo last  winter) and we have very exciting developments happening with our aquaponics venture this spring, so  I promise to write a detailed aquaponics catch-up post very soon!

Heading in after chores and  photos  to do my work, I noticed Nutmeg has caught  another rabbit.   This is the  5th big rabbit the dogs have caught in about a week (that I know about at least), which gives you a hint about the rabbit population.  Nutmeg  may be an old geezer dog, but she is obsessively persistent when she is on the trail of a rabbit.  With Cocoa and Zinnie helping to flush them out and chase them her direction, she is a pretty fierce, successful rabbit hunter. It makes me a little sad, but just a little, now that I have experienced such rabbit devastation in the garden. The rabbits do not go to waste - the dogs  enjoy feasting on their fresh kills. Maybe what we are spending on having to purchase greens because the rabbit ate our greenhouse crop, we are saving on dogfood bills.