Sitting this morning enjoying a cup of coffee, I looked up and saw the reflection of the sunrise in the window.  Standing out on the front porch to take the photo I heard our rooster doing his early morning crowing, it was the most pleasant sound to hear while looking at the sunrise. Have you ever heard the saying, red sky in the morning, sailors warning? Well we got snow that started after the noon hour, and when it started the winds came as well. My trips to the chicken coop were pretty cold fighting the wind...brrr.

Sugaring season has been different this year.  The one thing Jim noticed was that the ground didn’t seem to be as frozen as it usually is at this time of year.  We did have quite a bit of snow on the ground in the sugar bush during our below zero cold streak which lasted about 12 days. We are thinking that the snow may have insulated the ground from freezing.  We have been making maple syrup for 11 seasons now and we can never predict how the season will go. Hopefully the snow we got is what we call sugar snow which should reset the sap run. I’m definitely crossing my fingers for that to happen. 

I seem to average one blog post a month these days, or even less than that at times. Maybe I did two last month, anyway, has life changed for you at all in the past year?  Well it has for us in many ways.  We are not retired yet, we are still growing and preserving as much of our own food as we can and I’m looking forward to getting my seeds started. I have big ideas and plans for the garden and I can’t wait to get started, tho it’s still a long way off yet.  The hens are laying great and did pretty good this winter even during our very cold snap we had. I think if I’m remembering right we had at least 12 days of below zero temps. I was away at a quilt retreat last month and we woke up to -21 degrees.  That was cold. 

Our electric bill last month was outrageous, even though we heat with wood and our furnace never turned on during the harsh cold, something smells fishy to me about that. So, I decided I’m going to hang clothes out on the line even if there is snow on the ground, plus I’m putting our oil lamps to good use instead of just collecting dust for me to dust later.  It’s actually quite quaint to read by the oil lamp and enjoy a cup of coffee. 

Sugaring has started up.  I’m thinking it’s a bit early this year so we’ll see how long the season will be.  The seasons seem to be just flying by so fast to me and I’m not sure I like that. 
The snow is slowly melting with the warmer temps we have been having, and now you could say it’s officially mud season, our 5th season.