Early Spring Mud season and more

Early Spring in New Hampshire

We're doing our best here with Mud Season in full swing, we have three dogs that just love digging and splashing in any puddles they can find or make themselves.  They'll come in the house and shake that mud all over everything. I'm sure I'll have to get couple yards of loam just to fill in the holes they've dug in the yard.

Although Spring officially started just a couple days ago on March 19th, The Robins came in on Friday the 20th, we had 20 or so patrolling the field in the morning.  We'd heard them, but this is the first we'd seen them in large groups.  No worm droppings showing up in the front yard yet, probably still a little cold underground but we're close.

With the buds on the Maples opening in Manchester and the Pussy Willow buds opening here in New Boston, I'm thinking about going fishing already.  Time to get the rods ready and the boat out of the field from under the covers.

They've been talking about early spring, and from what I'm seeing they are right.  What little snow 1" or so we got on Thursday was gone the next day as we hit 66 degrees F.  The piles in the yard from the snow plow are almost gone. Rose has already commenced in clearing the garden beds & deadheading everywhere they're not snow covered.

The COVID-19 pandemic...
Still spreading like wildfire, 56 in New Hampshire as of this writing. I'm still working as of this posting, many states are telling folks to shelter in place shuttering all non-essential businesses (Essential workers Hospitals, Fire, Police, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. will stay open).  CA, NY, IL, have all given the order to shelter in place.

Coworker asked me if we'd seen any ticks yet, and although I heard on the news that ticks were out already I hadn't seen any yet on us, or the dogs and we've been walking the fields.  So Zebulon came in today and I saw something on his cheek, sure enough it was a tick, looking further another tick on the top of his head, and so it began, tick checks on all the dogs.  Hannah was next and sure enough she had one on the top of her head too.  One by one we tweezered them off the dogs they don't seem to mind much we tell them about the "bad buggy" and show them the tick(s) when we remove them. All of the dogs  rec'd their Lyme shots over the last few weeks. Though VERY EARLY this year we'll start Flea and Tick meds for the dogs that normally commences around April 10th when the tree swallows come in, we're trying a chewable "Nexgard" our Vet recommended over the Frontline Plus+ we normally use. I think I have a bag of the Ortho BUG B Gone granules left over from last year we'll put it down tomorrow, that stuff works wonders at keeping the ticks at bay here on the farm, we put on all the areas that we walk, and everywhere the dogs can get to as well and it pretty much stops them dead for 3 months or so.


Stay Healthy!

Spring 2020 is here

SPRING IS HERE!

Daylight Savings time today 3/8/2020 Spring Ahead!

The birds are gathering, the sparrows are fighting, the Red Winged Blackbirds have arrived.  Rosie heard the Woodcock twitter as they flew by, and last night 3/7 the classic "Reeep" calls out in the field, we look forward to hearing them this early in the year. While we haven't seen it yet this dance is pretty funny you have to admit. We've been seeing ducks flying all winter long, I don't think the larger rivers ever froze over completely.

The fields are clear, everything is a dull brown, we noticed a couple bird houses that blew down over the winter we'll have to patch up and rehang. There are some daffodils poking through the mulch up along the house foundation about 3" or so, the crocuses are just popping out of the ground.  We're hoping the dogs don't get to them before they can flower.  

It's officially Mud season here in NH, the dogs track it everywhere. We have a dirt (Mud) racetrack around the house mostly from Hanna zooming around, she's a champion zoom-er, with Zeb following closely behind. It's funny she looks downright petite compared to Zeb who's growing rapidly. Zebulon busies himself by pulling entire rose bushes out of the ground then proudly strutting around the yard with his catch!  

Zebulon "Zeb"

Zebulon with Hannah behind him

There's a few patches of snow left in the fields. Our pussy willows are out, this year's buds have a pink hue to them we never noticed before. Rose and I gathered a bunch for the house.

We have a bunch of things to do today, seemingly endless things to do...
Pulling the boat out, changing the house water filter, cutting some boards for the camper bunk beds, we may pick up a straw bale to help with the mud pit of a lawn.  

Rose has been sewing up a storm making curtains and cushion covers for the couch and beds.  Her sewing machine crapped out, that's the 3rd Singer that's gone belly up over the years, we've picked up a Elna machine, Swiss design, a brand recommended by a local shop Levesque's Sewing Machine & Vacuum in Hooksett, NH. We found out Dennis the owner is actually a neighbor that lives just up the street from us in Weare, NH. 

Watching the Corona Virus totals go up daily, impacts to manufacturing could be epic, time will tell, the Johns Hopkins Corona-virus Map is starting to look bad for the US with 436 cases now.