It worked!

We got a heavy rain last night and Mike's hard work shoveling that drainage ditch paid off!

Dreaming of Spring

Spring will arrive sooner or later, right? In the meantime, we've still got our share of snow, and it has really piled up behind the apartment-water building. So Mike's been clearing a drainage channel the last few days - it's quite a job since the snow drifts over his head and the building is only about 45 feet long! You can see behind him how it was piled up against the building. Yesterday we got about seven inches of new snow, since it's April, the snow is much heavier and wetter! One of our neighbors promptly got his snowmobile out and took off for an all day ride. We're actually seeing temperatures in the mid thirties though, so spring will get here eventually. It should be gorgeous when it arrives - we're melting slowly enough that when we start to green up - we should stay green. It's going to be a wonderful summer!

Rockwood gardening 2

Just over a month ago Mike brought my dead-looking geraniums upstairs and I've been feeding and watering and generally "nursing" them all month... here are the same ones I put on the blog early in the month (Thinking Spring/Feb. 28) - aren't they looking great? I keep hearing from my friends in the "banana belt" about dafodills etc. popping up and blooming - and I have to agree, seeing something green and growing is good for what ails us after a long winter!

The woodpeckers have been busy this past week, which is another sign of spring - I'm seeing quite a bit of "new home construction" in a couple of aspen trees near the house!

We're starting to get a lot of calls about canoe trips and cabins :) ... so it's probably time to do some serious vacation planning if you have a specific date in mind!

Gardening challenge

Gardening - flowers or veggies - is a bit of a challenge around here in the Big Woods! Earlier today I "prepped" the planters that go in the apartment building window boxes... pulled out all the dead plants, stirred up the soil, and put it outside to weather a bit before I plant new seeds.

The immediate result? Instant red squirrel digging happily away looking for last year's seed pods - and a deeply interested cat on the other side of the window, ready to spring over my indoor flower pots in pursuit of the squirrel and accidentally break off as many of the new geraniums sprouting in those planters as get in the way!

And, of course, any of my perennials that are stupid enough to pop up (won't happen for another month or so - we've still got a LOT of snow on the ground) will get eaten by fresh greens-starved snowshoe hares and the occasional moose. I guess this will be another year I rely on friends from less animal-populated areas for my peppers and tomatoes!

Winter baskets

I've had some friends ask how my winter art project is coming along, so thought I'd share this photo of this year's pine needle baskets (so far). It was a good year for needles - nice and long... the weather really makes a difference. Two years ago we had a lot of rain over the summer and the needles were the longest I've ever seen, last year wasn't as wet, but wetter than the dry year three years ago! I was able to find more small pine cones this year - I'm not sure why! Each basket takes from 10 to 30 hours to make, so it does keep my hands occupied and my mind wandering most of the winter! The needles and cones, of course, all come from around here, so they make great reminders of the BWCA and Rockwood!