One end of this week would not recognize the other. We started with snow and ended with mud.

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It has been rainy this month, far more spring rain than I can remember in years. All those raindrops made quick work of the snow in the open areas of the yard. The drain in the perennial garden started slowly working last week though there was so much melt water it filled the basin in front of the greenhouse, into the greenhouse, and spilled over the hill into the lake.

Every morning I would get up and peer out the east window to see if the drain had caught  up with amount of water running in. At night the temperatures drop and the surfaces of the puddles freeze but the in ground drainpipe stays open and running.

Day after day the yard pond would be smaller in the morning but fill up again during the day. Last Saturday the pipe was running as fast as it could and the pond was at its fullest. It started shrinking bit by bit, each day, a little smaller. Then on Tuesday the small pond was there when I woke up and looked out the window. It was there when I worked on boards in the greenhouse all day until I finished up and was heading out and realized that the rest of the soil above the pipe had thawed out and the pond was gone. It took a whole week to go from flooded greenhouse/garden to a pond-less garden…Tuesday to Tuesday.

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I had hopped the fence and raked the leaves off the perennial beds before the pond drained. I could not find straw last fall to mulch the plants so used poplar leaves I had planned to compost. The problem with mulch in Alaska is that while it protects the plant roots throughout the very cold winter, it delays the soil from thawing out in the spring. This means twice the work…putting it down in the fall and then taking it back off in the spring. With straw, it is pretty easy to lift and rake but wet matted leaves are no fun at all. After the pond drained, I forked all the leaf piles into the 4 wheeler cart and transferred them to the compost pile. When it dries out some more, the garden will need another raking but it looks pretty good.

And there are chives and comfrey poking up already.

With the warmer weather the squirrels are twitterpated and chasing each other all around the yard. My son decided to go hunting with his bb gun and quickly bagged 4 which he and his Dad skinned. Red squirrels are pretty small but they carved off the 4 quarters and soaked them overnight in salt water. We baked them slowly in cream of mushroom soup and they made a delicious meal. The connection between taking a life and using it to sustain ours is a life lesson that I consider imperative for our children to learn as they grow. If they kill it, they eat it. Even if it was not exactly I had in mind for dinner.

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I oscillate between reminding myself to be grateful for all the benefits our lifestyle give us especially during these days of social isolation and feeling frustrated at being pulled in so many different directions with so many spring projects. The days go by too quickly. And I have had more than one moment when I wished I was stuck in an apartment (alone) with nothing to do but read a book or watch tv.

One project that has been on the back burner for over a year was moving the shed across the yard. We had been talking about it on and off for the past week but on Wednesday it still it seemed to come out of nowhere when the plan “we are moving the shed today” was announced. Tim aired up the backhoe tires and charged the batteries while I removed the boxes of glass canning jars and anything else that might break. The shed is built on two beams that acted as skids. Other than the tight squeeze between the septic pipes in the beginning (that was stressful!), the building slid smoothly up the hill and across the gravel pad to its new home. It will take a fair bit of work to get it reorganized (just kidding…it was not organized in the first place so it will take a ton of work to actually organize it) and build our new woodshed onto the south side. But when it is done it will be a much better set up. It was on a steep hill, the freezer porch was breaking and we did not want to have a walking path across the septic tank or leach field in the winter. Untouched snow acts as an insulator to the ground keeping our plumbing working through 40 below stretches. Our storage shed, with built on woodshed, was in place when we put the septic in between it and the house and it has not been the ideal set up with us tromping across the area all winter to access our stored items, freezers, and split wood. Being on flat ground and closer to the house will be much better in the long run especially for processing firewood (no more hauling split wood uphill!)

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There are other signs of spring emerging. The kids discovered their bikes this week when they thawed out of the ice and now I have companions on my walks who mock my slowness. The dry road is more fun for the kids and we do not have to kick them outside to play anymore.

The Copper River is open. No more ice dams.

And while the migratory birds seem to be taking their time this year (or maybe I just keep missing them…), there are some around. We saw a swan fly over the lake on the 14th. And today there were ducks in the roadside ponds. I am ready for more!

It rained again last night but now that the garden has drained and the yard is primarily free of ice and snow, I am not so worried about the extra moisture. After the extremely dry year last year, a wet spring is pretty darn nice. I am starting my brassica seeds today, just over a week late from my normal schedule.

With a later colder spring, a later planting should not matter in the long run. Young, healthy starts often catch up and surpass older starts. My other slower growing starts are doing well too. The cool spring means not getting out to the greenhouse every day. But it is warming up more every week.

The gardening and self sufficient lifestyle has been gaining in popularity in leaps and bounds over the last decade but no more so than right now in the midst of a pandemic. And the majority of the time this is super exciting to me. I love to mentor folks with their gardens. But this surge in interest can also lead to shortages. It means that it is harder or impossible to find the things we need on an annual basis. We wanted spring pigs but last month we did not travel to town because of stay at home orders even though technically we could have travelled for agriculture/food. And now there are no spring pigs to be had. I really, really wanted pigs this year and we are still looking for some but an already scarce market is now an empty market. I am worried that I will need more seeds and not be able to get them because of the overwhelming seed ordering that has occurred. My two most relied upon seed companies have both shut down to non commercial growers this month to catch up on orders and I have been unable to get some of the items I would like (most importantly a new wonder waterer wand for greenhouse watering and can not source elsewhere to Alaska).

I am tired this week. Physically tired from the spring outside work but also mentally tired of the pandemic, tired of the same chores everyday, tired of needing to be a positive cheerleader for school and kid chores, tired of not being able to get away for a bit and visit with a girlfriend. And I feel incredibly guilty feeling this way because we have everything we need plus access to the outside every single day. I have struggled this week to remember to be grateful for what we have. I have not been the best Mom. (Tim did almost ALL the schooling this week.) And I would definitely be fired if the housekeeper position was a paid job (the dishes and floor need to be cleaned and I just don’t want to). I thought getting out of the house and a small road trip would help me by participating in the weekly Friday outing to hand in school work, collect more school work, and pick up supplies. But the stress of grocery shopping, sanitizing, and talking to folks with an uncomfortable mask on just made things worse and I wish I had stayed at home. I am on the same page with the dwarf Grumpy today evidently. Sigh.

So I need to change my perspective and continue to work on being more positive. Salad greens are up in the greenhouse.

The frogs will start singing any night. The crocuses will be up soon (we looked today on the 5 mile bluffs but not a purple flower in sight). The lake will open up more and more. The weather will continue to warm. The mud will turn back into soil (as long as no one walks on it).

And there is basil growing.

So many good things and so many things to be grateful for. A sunny day would not hurt though…