Spring is here

Yes, spring is here. For most people who live in the temperate countries, this is the time of joy. Gone are the cold winter days. The days get longer and the warmth is here. This is the time to get busy too. In my neck of the woods, the birds are busy mating, so are the rabbits, and all the critters that live in them. My husband and i are busy as well, but not busy doing what the critters do. We get busy gardening. We get busy raising baby chicks. My husband gets busy with his passion of going fishing. Fishing is not only for sport, but for food too. He is busy fixing the pontoon boat (belongs to his fishing buddy) and getting all the fishing gears and paraphernalia that goes with fishing. Last weekend, they went out fishing and brought home two ice (igloo) chests full of them fish about 200 ekor. Know what, that is not the end of the fishing trip. Then we have to clean them. He fillet most of them and i keep some whole fish for curry and some for the grill. I learnt to clean the fish and i still don't know how to keep the fish heads intact. So I kind of chopped them off.
That is the fishing chapter that will go on until the Fall or until my husband gets tired of his favourite sport. I still have half of my deep freezer full of last year's fish.
About gardening...late winter my husband put organic fertilizer in the garden, cowdung and chicken stuff. Cowdung was free from the neighbour's ranch and of course the chicken stuff was from our own chicken coop.
Now the garden is ready. We do not plant until the last deep freeze i.e until April, but we still get late freeze as late as May. In my garden, i have asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, beet, spinach, squash, beans, bell peppers and other plants.Of course not forgetting my cili api and serai.
Spring too is the time for all weeds and plants starting to bloom in order to propagate. My neck of the woods is full of blooms now and when i take a walk everyday in the morning, there are new flowers blooming.
Early blooms are those of peaches, cherries, blackberries, cottonwood etc. To my observation the pinky flowers are the first to appear, then the white ones, then the others. Now there are myriads of colors, if you love natural wild flowers. There are of course them flowers that you cultivate. I have some daffodils, tulips, gladioli which are gone by now. Right now only petunias and 'rose jepun' are blooming. Creek mertle have not even budding yet, as it is more of a summer flower.
Summertime is another story...I shall be busy canning fruits and vegetables. Sometimes i don't know why I canned them as they are cheap in the market. To my husband, personally canned tomatoes tastes 100 times better than the one you bought from the store. Fresh tomatoes from your own garden are juicier and tastier. Well, for me the technique used to preserve food is more intriguing than the finished products itself. However I agree with my husband that my preserved peaches and pears taste better than the one in the can from the store. My pear tree has not made any fruits yet, it bloomed but not making any fruits. My husband thinks it is a male tree, perhaps we need to find a partner for it. Well, even without a tree I got more than I can canned from a neighbour down the road. She would have loaded up a pickup truck full of them if I did not stop her last summer. And as a gesture I gave her a bushel of garlic from my garden ( a big bucket).
Busy huh...well, i can choose to stay at home not doing anything, just watch TV or I can keep my time occupied with chores and enjoying my time at my own pace. I could keep my yard small and hire people to mow my yard, but i do enjoy mowing the yard all 6 acres of it and another 2 acres for my husband to brushhog.
I enjoy walking in the woods and spy on the wild grapes and wild plums and balckberries etc. I spy this morning that the balckberries are almost ready and soon i will be busy picking them and making them into juice and jem/jellies.
Well, that is spring for me. Just want to share my spring time.