Traveled north to the family farm for the final half of the weekend with hopes of one final ice fishing trip, maybe some tree planting, and for sure some time out and about on the land I call home. Two out of three will have to do......
** It's been nice to see Mother Earth has decided to make an appearance again after nearly six solid months of being buried under snow. It was mid-October when I was last here without snow on the ground. As much as I enjoy the winter months, as much as I like having some snow for hunting season, and as much as I dread the coming heat and bugs of summer....there's something kind of, ummm, spiritual(?) about seeing land instead of snow. No, not spiritual. Cleansing, maybe? I don't know what the word should be - I just know that walking and riding through the fields and seeing grass, even dead grass, stirred thoughts of potential, of what lies ahead, where before there were only thoughts of "When is this snow ever gonna melt?"
** So the fishing didn't go so well. My dad and a buddy were on the ice on Wednesday, but by today the strong April sun and thawing temps had rotted the ice to an unsafe thickness.....or thinness. Naturally we had to walk out on the ice to make sure we shouldn't be on it, but once we determined we were flirting with death we tiptoed back to shore and officially ended the hard water season. And what a lousy season it was. Started with bitter cold temps and mediocre fishing at Christmas time with only two weekends of fishing since, both of which stunk. Falling through the ice and drowning today would have been a fitting end, so take that ice fishing gods - you failed in your quest to ruin me completely!
** Instead of drowning we went to the sugar bush to collect maple sap one final time. The extended cold up here really put a damper on the sap run this spring - my folks collected less than half the sap they usually get. Today's plan was to pull the taps since A) very little sap has been running and B) the sudden, but very tardy, warmth has triggered bud development on trees, and as everyone knows when buds form the sap turns cloudy. However, we were surprised to find a number of trees still producing clear sap, and more than expected to boot! So we pulled two-thirds of the taps from poor producers or budded trees and left about 15 jugs hanging with the hopes of another day or two of clear sap.
** And then I planted trees. I love planting trees. It's kind of monotonous and hard on the back, but planting a tree is like planting a piece of the present as a gift to the future from the past - now that's spiritual. Planting lots of trees at a time is a way to shape the land, create habitat, and enhance the already abundant natural beauty of this place I love so much. Usually we put 500 trees in the ground each spring, purchased from the DNR, but this spring we're doing something a little different. We're transplanting trees that we're stealing from the county. The county road my parents live on is lined with small spruce saplings that will eventually be mowed or trimmed for roadside cleaning. So I'm harvesting those trees and moving them to our fields. Did sixty today, maybe try to get another sixty done tomorrow. Go ahead, tell on me.
A month late, spring has taken hold of the north country. Flocks of robins, pairs of sandhill cranes, and the most eager frogs were all making themselves heard and seen today. The smoke rolled from the sugar shack sap boil as the warm south winds blew strong from dawn until, well, they're still howling out there. Willow buds are cracking open, and lilac leaves won't be far behind. With a little luck, and some rain, morel mushrooms will be pushing through the leaf litter the next time I'm here. It's hard to say when next time will be; the visits here are brief and too far between, but to have a place like this, a place where I can be a front-row observer to seasonal changes, is something I will never take for granted.
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