April is my least favorite month. It is a time of transition that starts out cold and frozen and ends muddy and mushy. There is an enormous amount of sunlight but though it feels like spring you can not actually do any outdoor projects as the ground is still frozen at the end of the month under the very slippery few greasy thawed out inches of soil. The compacted ice in the yard breaks up, the lake starts to break up, the rivers break up. It is “Break Up” time. And if you are not a gardener I recommend using the month of April to visit family, go on holiday, leave Alaska. Not that anyone is going anywhere right now.

This year we had a few old school cold snaps in January where the temperatures stayed well below -30°F for days and weeks on end. These prolonged cold periods thicken the ice on the lakes and rivers as well as drive the frost way down into the ground. Spring will arrive later than last year when we did not have any prolonged extreme cold. Things are starting to melt a bit though. Our south facing slope to the lake has a strip of thawed land and bare spots are showing up here and there. Just two days ago the compost pile was completely encased in snow and today I noticed a dark spot.

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We got the bison quarter, from the hunt my husband assisted with, butchered and into the freezer over the weekend. It does feel good to have some fresh meat. Bison burgers were a big hit and I am thankful we are eating so well right now.

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This week flew by (is it really Thursday already?) and I did not really spend any of it doing gardening stuff. Our kids started long distance schooling on Monday and that kept us very involved. I have not thought about polygons in a very long time. And it took a few days to get the routine down. But I think the kids realize now that we are actually serious about school from home (took a little convincing) and are getting into the groove.

And we have had stellar weather the past few days that make going out after the studies are done for the day very rewarding.

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Today I made the time to catch up on seed starting. I have been pulled in several different directions lately and got behind. But the tomatoes and ground cherries are started now as well as snapdragons, nasturtiums and strawflowers. The onions, peppers, and herbs are growing well. I take the cat covers off during the day and run small fans on them to help them grow strong.

I probably planted too many flowers but right now at the end of a long winter and spring still a month away, I am in need of hope and cheer. I am so, so, worried about our future. I have not been very good at taking the advice I dole out daily to the kids: concentrate only on today and tomorrow, work on treating our fellow housemates with kindness and respect, work hard and do a good job even if the task feels meaningless. But I am trying.

And April can not last forever, right?

6:30 AM on Friday morning and the wind has been howling for hours. Unable to go back to sleep, I finally motivated myself up out of bed and downstairs where a cozy fire, hot coffee, and a dog and kitty snuggling nearby make me wonder why getting out of bed at 5 am seemed so hard. This week has been all about the little moments. At least once a day I stop and think “Remember this moment. Everything is ok. My family is healthy. We have food and shelter. Life is still good.”

There is enough daylight to over work yourself these days and our solar panels have been providing all the power we need and then some. I love this. Doing laundry, running a chop saw, utilizing a large shop vac to clean sanded boards in the greenhouse all without running a noisy gas generator is just awesome. It has been above freezing everyday. The sun’s light is warm and melts the snow off the roof. Everything drips in the middle of the day. Being outside, taking a deep breath of spring air, and remembering how the air hurt my face a mere two months ago is another moment to savor.

The kids had an extended three week spring break and start remote schooling on Monday. Both kids are advanced in their studies so I did not freak out about their missed education. Instead they have read books, completed chores, and played outside.

We have been watching an educational program each evening and having some lively discussions about cold water sharks, the Mariana trench, Chauvet cave, the Mars missions. Say what you will about television…there is something spectacular about seeing different and incredible parts of the world even when you live in a place that is pretty amazing too. One of my daughters daily chores is to check for eggs everyday. When we were down at the garden with the chicken water and dropping off some coffee grounds in the compost pile, we noticed some bizarre tracks, the first tracks in the garden all winter other than the occasional bird print.

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They were not snowshoe hare, squirrel, fox, weasel…what could they be? I took some photos and we asked my husband, who is very good with tracks (I am not so much) and discovered that a little muskrat must have frozen out of his home and be looking for open water. The muskrat must have been pretty small to squeeze through the two inch chicken wire. We thought about following the tracks and seeing if we could find it but pressing chores won out. Many many years ago when we still overwintered our horses here, we had a car canopy filled with hay down by the lake. A muskrat that had been frozen out of the water midwinter moved in. He lived there for months and became so tame I could pet him. As soon as the edges of the lake thawed out in spring he disappeared. Muskrats are fun to watch swimming in the lake during the summer with a rat tail that whips furiously back in forth in the water as they paddle along. Their winter fur is very soft but easy to sew and makes beautiful baby booties. And they are good for eating too…though usually referred to as marsh rabbit instead of muskrat at the dinner table. I might have to add muskrat trapping to the to do list this spring for some hearty stew and some pelts to sew next winter.

With the warm weather thawing out the chicken coop, Sylvia and I tackled a big spring chore this week. All winter we add fresh straw to the frozen coop. Sprinkling new straw on top of the bedding keeps the chickens clean and off the frozen poo that collects in poocicles (or poo stalagmites?) under the roosts. But by the time spring rolls around there is an enormous amount of straw and poo piled up in the coop. We hooked a big sled up to my snowmachine and forked out 5 sled loads that we transported to the compost pile.

The chickens love this event. Every forkful exposes something new for them to scratch and peck. And they especially like the coop freshly emptied with a new scattering of rye straw.

I made another friend (or two, or 5…does anyone know how to tell Magpies apart from each other?) this month. Every morning I take water and leftover food scraps to the chickens and a bold magpie perches above the chicken run. I started leaving a treat on the round bale occasionally: a spaghetti noodle, a bit of cooked broccoli, a soggy bread chunk. Now the bird chatters loudly at me if I forget the treat. There are many magpies around but I think the one at the coop each morning is the same as I can not get close to the other ones I run into. But I truly can not tell them apart so who knows? But I do enjoy saying hello every morning to the bird that coos, scolds, and chatters at me with a cocked head and intelligent eye. This bird knows I am a soft touch and will leave treats with just a little attention. I appreciate the job they do too. They are scavengers and keep our woods clean of decaying animal bodies. Anytime there is a hare or squirrel carcass or bits leftover from a butchering project of our own, they eat it up quickly and efficiently.

The hens of course wonder why I am not giving them every last scrap.

While we have a fair amount of human food, we are a bit short on pet supplies. We often stock up on dog and cat food at Costco or in a pinch purchase some from our local Country store. I have even ordered cat and guinea pig food on Amazon in the past. It is something I have never considered much. We do not buy a years supply to stockpile because it takes up a lot of space. We have always been able to get some when needed and never before have we run out. Now, well, all the previous options have issues. Our local store sells out as soon as the weekly supply truck comes in. Reports of the stores in Anchorage continue to be of barren shelves. I am sure there are resupply schedules there too but is it worth a 250 mile drive to find out if our timing is any good? And Amazon is so backlogged that even if they have a product you want it is over a month from shipping up here. So. What do we do now?

Tater, the lucky dog, is on a diet anyway and has enough food for two months. Eve will be out of the food she prefers in a few days but we have canned salmon she can eat and she is a good hunter (and she really likes Tater’s food too). It would not bother me to see her have to eat some of her kills instead of stashing them as presents under our front steps and she could use a little slimming down as well. And the guinea pig, hmm…as I write this I realize that all our pets have come through the winter in good health with a bit of extra flesh. Carrots (the guinea pig) has plenty of hay but we are out of the fresh vegetables he needs to eat on a daily basis. It is another 6 weeks till there will be the first of the wild and garden plants that we feed him daily in the summer so we had to get creative.

We started sprouting a 1/4 cup of wheat berries for him with an 8 jar rotation. One is fed to him every day. The remaining 7 are rinsed and drained and we start a new jar. Who needs factory made guinea pig food anyway?!? Carrots eats all the green grass and we give the roots and remaining seeds to the chickens. So far so good. Now I just need to come up with a new plan for bedding and the litter box. We usually purchase wood pellets (the kind for pellet stoves) for the litter box and guinea pig cage. They smell nice, are biodegradable with no added chemicals, and work brilliantly. I do not really want to resort to running boards through the planer for bedding. But if needs must…

Hopefully we will be able to get more chicken feed locally. Feeding the flock could prove challenging. Though I would rather have eggs than chicken meat, we can always reduce the flock. We’ll make do.

Social distancing has not changed our life in huge ways. The kids have been disappointed to not go to March birthday parties and I have sold eggs and shared seeds by leaving items at the end of driveway for retrieval.

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What I have struggled with most is expressing my choice to be overly cautious and follow social distancing with family members and members of the community who do not see the need to. It is hard to not extend hospitality or allow kids to play. I sometimes feel like I am over exaggerating the risk in rural Alaska. I do not like looking at every person or everything that comes into this house as a possible carrier of illness. I have traditionally looked at common germs as a way to exercise the immune system. Sure, we have always followed basic hygiene practices and encouraged our kids to wash their hands. But this is the first time in my life I have been suspicious of our doorknobs. On the other hand, I am heartbroken over the situation in Italy and watching with fear as the epidemic in New York spreads north towards my family in New England. It is hard to not be scarily realistic when thinking about getting care in Alaska. If our hospitals are overwhelmed in the cities, we will have no options other than to care for our community ourselves. If we won’t drive in for nonexistent supplies, would we drive in for an overflowing ER?

I asked the kids this week to not climb trees…this is not the time to need a medivac.

So I listen to the news and updates briefly in the morning and then focus on the tasks for the day. I encourage the kids to focus on today and tomorrow and no further. I am trying to not dwell on the opportunities missed. It is challenging to balance grief for experiences lost while acknowledging gratitude for the security our lifestyle has afforded us. All my problems are first world problems. We are so lucky to be where we are. We have no control over the world and while I have times when I am frozen with fear, most of the time we are doing what we would do without a pandemic: cutting and splitting firewood, working on Sylvia’s new room, hauling water, preparing for spring, and on top of that doing our part to make sure we do not get sick and do not spread illness.

The six trays of starts in the window are growing steadily. It is time to start more. I had the best germination on pepper seeds ever this year after following a tip from the Grow Guide podcast. I soaked 1/16th cup of dried kelp in one quart water overnight. The next morning, March 11th, I strained the kelp tea into labelled shot glasses and added pepper seeds into each one. I meant to let them soak for 4 to 6 hours but they ended up staying in the glasses until the next day when I planted them into soil blocks. I have traditionally had a very hard time germinating peppers and plant a lot of extra to ensure I have enough for my greenhouse. I neglected to log when the peppers started coming up but they had fantastic germination this year. I highly recommend using this technique!

I hope you are all well and staying Covid-19 free. Spend as much time in your garden as you can whether it be indoors or out. I am here as a resource if you have any gardening questions especially for Zones 2 and 3.