Here At Last

Here it is, our first Daffodil. But lest we think too springy of thought here, the NWS has us lined up for all of 19' F tonight. They say the price of gas went down ( a little ) because of a mild winter. That may be so here, but it sure looked like it wasn't the case up north. I guess I'll never understand economics. I think they just get as much as they can mostly. And since we mostly drive, we mostly pay.
We did make it out to cut wood today. One of the advantages of a small truck is you can fill it quickly. One of the disadvantages of a small truck is it don't hold much. But the old back is acting up, so I guess it was a good thing to minimize the work. In this case the minimization was maximized. We brought strong, athletical son along, and an extra chainsaw. And then, those country boys were so inspired by young daughter's beauty that they loaded most of the wood for her. Daughters can be a good thing, you know. But so not to offend the tree huggers, what was cut was standing deadwood, nice dry oak stuff. Just what works best on those 19' mornings.

Coming Soon

As spring draws near, it seems our next bit of encuragement will be these wonderful yellow blooms. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. I've already seen some in town, but they don't count. This time of year our eyes crave that little bit of color, the tiny little blossom some where, the bright crimson cardinal sitting on a bare tree branch, something besides the lifeless brown and grey.
I don't know what these tiny blue blooms are, but they are another bit of spring on the way. So small they are easily missed in the grass like so many other small things that are there to bless us if we will only take the time to see them.
But of course, the cold weather is not ended. Tomorrow, God willing, we go on a wood cutting excursion.

First Daffodil

Yesterday, whilst working in town, I saw the first Daffodil of this spring. This is not said daffodil. This is a pile of ashes. Here it seemed spring was so near, so ready to spring forth and fill the world with glorious color, and now, winter is to return.
The ashes come from the wood stove. This is one more daily chore during this chilly season of ice and snow. One curious thing about hot ashes, is how long they can stay viable. Back in "The Days" this was a lot more common and we actually set a couple garbage trucks on fire with hot ashes. This sort of thing results in the hasty deposit of a large amount of garbage into the middle of a street. After that it was the street department's problem. One time whilst making our rounds, I came upon a burning can starting to ignite someone's carport. Plastic cans tend to melt in this situation. Less anyone think we are above this ourselves, we once set the back yard on fire with hot ashes due to poor communication. This resulted in the loss of a couple motorcycles among other things. We once set a garbage truck on fire with a bunch of chemicals from a swiming pool at the park. But that's another story.
But for now, winter is back, they're calling for snow and ice. Maybe they'll close school !