Spring in the mountains
Any season up here in the north woods is not one to be judged, its always different and you never really know what to expect. Spring for instance is one of the most complicated seasons we have, it starts to warm up the melt is in full swing and about 75 percent of everything has melted, water flowing down the mountain in little rivers. Then out of no where after a solid week of 45 and 50 degree weather its switches to 25 again and dumps a foot of snow on you. But even when the weather is extremely unpredictable and it’s snowing out, -30 degrees, 80 mph winds, pouring for days on end there is always work to be done and you get it done regardless of the conditions.
Melt season usually starts around the beginning of April and last till about mid May. This spring has been a bit off, but we have had a wacky last year of weather for everyone. Our melt started about the second week in march and it would melt a bunch then get cold and freeze up and we had ice for a bit. Things started melting again and just when we thought hey ice and mud season might be over already we got hit with a little over a foot of snow and a few days later the melt started again.
During melt season being on the side of the mountain where our entire property is an incline when things are melting our yard turns into multiple little rivers everywhere, and we have lots of wash out and mud that comes down and just makes a mess of everything.
Our road washed out pretty good this year and we do not have a machine so we spent a lot of time just walking the road and making trenches for the water to run off. If we don’t do that the water just sits and naturally makes the road muddier for a longer period of time. Its kind of a pain in the ass, but the kids absolutely love running back and forth while we do the work.
Over the last few months we have had a few serious wind storms and lost quite a few trees, so we enjoyed our first outdoor fire of the year and got a chunk of it burned up. There is always a lot of yard clean up in the spring, from toys left out in the snow that got buried by more snow that hadn’t got hit by the snowblower have surfaced, and dead laid over grass that needs to be thatch raked ( I love raking though my husband thinks I’m crazy ), and oh so much dog shit everywhere!!!! I love watching everything come back to life and being cleaned up after what feels like an eternity of a winter, and seeing what was a dead, soaking wet mess have life breathe through it and put into perspective how amazing this world really is, for its raw beauty.
As of now I can almost confidently say we are past the snow and things are drying up ( would be defiantly if it would stop raining so much ) we are in full swing project mode. The barn is coming together and is almost finished!!! We have the garden cleaned up and ready for plants, I’m enjoying my time raking when the ground is dry enough to let me, and the fact that the kids can throw boots on and scoot out the door is probably my absolute favorite! No more 4 layers and can’t find a dry pair of gloves, or boots that are still wet from the day before. I’m so excited for all the things to come this spring and summer, I know my kids are happy the snow is gone, but they are not happy that they traded out snow for the bugs. The gnats and mosquitos are out in full force rate now with everything being so wet! Hopefully things dry up soon and we don’t get rained on six days a week like last spring and summer. Here is to a good growing season, lots of memories, lots of knowledge, and to do some things this spring and summer that you may have put on the back burner for far to long!
