April Fool

Here's a rerun of what the yard looked like March 8 in this photo taken from our bathroom window.  The snow has melted in the area over the warm drainage field/septic tank and the Girls are out and about enjoying the feel of dirt between their toes scratching around the crocus..

Oh, but let me show you what a difference a mere few weeks makes!

Wait............

Here we are again, April 1.  What is wrong with this picture?

(Beside the fact it's not great photography and besides the stainless steel gazing ball is still sitting on the ground again (forgot to put it away last fall, ooops.)    

If you said, "Well, there appears to be more snow in this picture," you're right, there's more snow in April than there was in March.  The black blobs in the foreground are the same crocus, doing their best to bloom even after being buried by the last snowstorm we had nearly two weeks ago that dumped  17" of snow.  Living in Wisconsin, a snowstorm in the spring is no big deal, it happens all the time, but normally the snow melts in a day or two and we're back to mud.  Not this last time...the temps have just been too cold for much thawing. 

Teddy Dog making his way carefully across the snow this morning.

I am running seriously behind this season.  I'm afraid I will have to take drastic measures soon if this snow doesn't melt.  Normally we'd have the greenhouse up and running by mid-March and I'd have my seeds all planted, but since the last snowstorm we cannot even get close to the machine shed where the hoophouse is stored for the off-season.  There's still a 4' drift in front of the shed that extends over 50 feet.  I guess I'll have to go back to starting my seeds in the house and then transfer the flats out to the greenhouse when (and if!) the snow melts and we can put it up.  The only reason I'm not fond of seed starting indoors any more is because this house is so small; the only place I can set up the plant stand is in the dining room which severely limits our card playing activities.   I have around 2500 seeds to get in the ground and here it is April 1 already.  Oh, boy.

With Ashley in the lead, we have Buffy, Francee, Crystal and Goldie on their way out to work this morning, with Pudding Dog bringing up the rear.  The Girls don't let snow get them down.

Speaking of April Fools, Carl and I had a Serious Conversation about what we wanted to accomplish this year.  We need to finish something we started. 

We've been spending the last ten years working on the Quarry Garden and the Escarpment, and the hill behind the Quarry and the Pachyberm and the Something Else gardens, which all involved moving big rocks around in circles.

  In April of 2005, Joel is hauling a rock up to the construction site.  This is what April in Wisconsin normally looks like, in case you're interested.  Mud.

When big rocks are delivered by a dump truck, after they are unloaded, you end up with a whole lot of not-so-big rocks, too, as you can see in this April 2005 photo, below.  

2005

 We had a lot of rocks on pallets when we got done sorting them all out.

I spent days and weeks sorting through the stones, grading them by size and loading them onto the pallets, which is what I'm doing in this picture taken in April of 2005 below: 

 

I would pick through the piles for rocks too small to use for the garden project and toss them into pails for gravel.  (Hard to believe how much I've aged in the last six years....sigh.)  Note my trusty knee pads and trendy black socks making a fashion statement. 

Here's where the true Fool part of this post is coming in:  I had a Foolish Idea which, at the time, six years ago, sounded like a Brilliant Idea.   (Now it's an idea I wish I'd never had.) 

I decided we could build something with those leftover rocks that were too small for landscaping and too big for gravel.  It wouldn't take much time, and hey, we had all the raw materials.  Let's build a Stone Garden Cottage!  (Arghhh, what was I thinking??)

 

We did get a start on the project way back in 2005, and that's where it all ended.  And that's where this post is going to end, with Carl and I sitting around making plans this past winter for what we're going to accomplish in 2011. 

Talk about April Fools?  How embarrassing to have started this project six years ago and not finish it. 

No, it's not a silo ruin, it's my 'Stone Garden Cottage'............sorta. 

Wall of Shame

Stay tuned for 'How This All Started, Part 16' or whatever number we're up to now....and I'll tell you a story about what happens when Carl & Karen bite off more than they can chew. 

But, hey, I take all the blame; after all, it was my Brilliant Idea.